1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to apparatus useful in painting applications, and more specifically to trim tool for applying paint around trimwork and molding and a paint tray for applying paint to the trim tool.
2. Description of Related Art
There are a variety of painting tools, such as trays, buckets, paint rollers, brushes, pads, and the like for use by painters to make the job of applying paint more efficient. For example, paint trays can be used to provide a reservoir or paint in which to dip a paint tool, be it a trim tool, a paint brush or a paint roller. Typically, the paint trays have been flat, long, horizontal pans or even vertical buckets which have a paint reservoir well and a ribbed angled deck wherein the saturated paint roller is rolled to remove excess paint. These types of paint trays all have a common deficiency—they allow the user to freely dip the paint tool without limitation into the reservoir well. This creates over dipping and over saturation of the paint tool, which increases the mess caused by dripping and paint splatter. Additionally, portions of the paint tool intended to remain free of paint, such as edge guards on trim tools, become contaminated with paint.
This causes many existing trim and edging tools used to prepare the trim surface prior to painting to fail to perform as expected, as the very portions of the trim tool designed to protect adjacent surfaces from being painted actually apply paint to those adjacent surfaces. Thus, charging the trim tool with paint is a problem that leads to getting paint on the very trim work that the trim tool was designed to protect. Additionally, it is often difficult to remove excess paint from the paint applicator portion of the trim tool because the angled deck of generic paint trays can often become saturated with paint and are not specifically designed the smaller trim tools.
Furthermore, with typical paint rollers and trim tools, the painter must handle the paint saturated paint applicator in order to remove it for clean-up or replacement. Thus, they are often messy and cumbersome to use. Thus, there is a need for improved painting tools that provide greater utility and convenience to the user.
Based on the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a trim tool and paint tray assembly that charges the roller of the trim tool without contaminating guard portions of the tool.